Westminster Society Domiciliary Care Service for Adults has been rated Outstanding overall by the Care Quality Commission.
This service, which is run by The Westminster Society For People With Learning Disabilities, provides care and support to people living in 18 supported living settings, so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. It was rated Outstanding for being caring and responsive. It was rated Good for being safe, effective and well-led, after an inspection in June and July 2018.
At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 101 people in the City of Westminster, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London borough of Camden.
People using the service and their relatives spoke extremely positively about the caring and compassionate nature of the staff and felt that they went above and beyond their expectations of care to meet clients’ needs including some exceptional work to support people to deal with sensitive issues, such as bereavement.
It was clear that positive relationships had been developed with people and the staff teams across the service. CQC inspectors saw that people were extremely relaxed and comfortable with staff and were given the opportunity to express their wishes. Staff were focused on the needs of people and spoke with them in a calm and respectful way, responding compassionately if they became upset or distressed.
People were allocated a keyworker to ensure the support they received was consistent and allowed them to develop caring relationships and understand how they liked to be supported. One team 
manager said: “It is important to have consistency for the residents, with no rapid changes from one thing to another.” People using the service were also encouraged to be involved in the staff recruitment and training process.
Detailed care plans were in place and provided a summary of medical histories and health conditions for staff. They included people’s personal histories, behaviours, how their diagnosis affected them as well as their social and emotional needs. Care plans were person centred, highlighted what was important to people, their preferences, communication methods and how they wanted their care needs to be met. People using the service and their relatives were fully involved in making decisions about their care and support. One relative said: “I’m always involved and updated with any changes. They always ask me for my opinion and if I can add anything that will be of help.”
The service had continued to find ways to develop and improve, looking at ways of overcoming barriers to support people to lead independent lives. For example, events had been created to support people to attend music venues outside the normal working hours of staff. This gave people more opportunities to do the things they wanted to do.
The service listened to people’s experiences and concerns through a monthly consultation group called ‘Listen to Us’ which was made up of people using the service to discuss issues important to them and to help them get their own messages across. Since the last inspection this group had expanded with a new group set up to support people in the Camden area too.
The service worked in partnership with other agencies for the benefit of both people using the service and staff teams. The provider had worked closely with a local day centre to support a person to return after a period of absence due to deterioration in their health. Visits from local MPs, local nurses and the community police to the provider’s consultation groups had also been arranged. Inspectors saw the provider had a working partnership with the National Portrait Gallery to provide opportunities for people to attend art programmes.
Debbie Ivanova, CQC’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said: “Staff and management at Westminster Society Domiciliary Care Service for Adults are to be congratulated for the high quality of care they provide to people.
“I was particularly impressed that the service had developed ways to make sure everyone could influence the development of the service to meet their individual needs and aspirations.”
You can read the report in full by clicking on https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-315882426 on CQC’s website.
